Organizational Experience: Self, Role and Expectations: Organizational Experience: Self, Role & Expectations

In a time when corporate downsizing and restructuring are causing dislocation and change in middle management positions, new career opportunities and effective contribution to new organizations requires more than just technical knowledge to develop new tasks, skills and markets. By achieving greater insight into the historical forces that are causing change and into personal and professional initiatives and responses, participants can create opportunities for their own meaningful transformations. In this seminar, readings in a variety of literatures and selected films are used to explore a wide range of work and life experiences, looking at careers across centuries and social class.  Participants will have the opportunity to consider (and indeed reconsider) their own work preferences and career choices as reflections of their early family, school and work experience. They will do this by researching and developing an autobiography that explores family history, educational history, and organizational work experience as a practicing professional. The nature of the autobiographical work in this course is, by definition, personal. Participants should be willing to explore those themes that reside within their life experience and contribute to analytical and open discussion.